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[Illustration: "You Are Not Likely to Be of Any Use Here."]
"You Are Not Likely to Be of Any Use Here."
_ Frontispiece._
The Submarine Boys and the Middies
OR
The Prize Detail at Annapolis
By Victor G. Durham
Author of The Submarine Boys on Duty, The Submarine Boys' Trial Trip, The
Submarine Boys and the Spies, Etc.
_Illustrated_
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Akron, Ohio . New York
Made in U.S.A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I: THE PRIZE DETAIL
CHAPTER II: HOW EPH FLIRTED WITH SCIENCE
CHAPTER III: "YOU MAY AS WELL LEAVE THE BRIDGE!"
CHAPTER IV: MR. FARNUM OFFERS ANOTHER GUESS
CHAPTER V: TRUAX SHOWS THE SULKS
CHAPTER VI: TWO KINDS OF VOODOO
CHAPTER VII: JACK FINDS SOMETHING "NEW," ALL RIGHT
CHAPTER VIII: A YOUNG CAPTAIN IN TATTERS
CHAPTER IX: TRUAX GIVES A HINT
CHAPTER X: A SQUINT AT THE CAMELROORELEPHANT
CHAPTER XI: BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED!
CHAPTER XII: JACK BENSON, EXPERT EXPLAINER
CHAPTER XIII: READY FOR THE SEA CRUISE
CHAPTER XIV: THE "POLLARD" GOES LAME
CHAPTER XV: ANOTHER TURN AT HARD LUCK
CHAPTER XVI: BRAVING NOTHING BUT A SNEAK
CHAPTER XVII: THE EVIL GENIUS OF THE WATER FRONT
CHAPTER XVIII: HELD UP BY MARINES
CHAPTER XIX: THE LIEUTENANT COMMANDER'S VERDICT
CHAPTER XX: CONCLUSION
LIST OF FIGURES
"You Are Not Likely to Be of Any Use Here."
Down Dropped the Bag.
Eph Raced After Jack, Barking at Him.
CHAPTER I: THE PRIZE DETAIL
"The United States Government doesn't appear very anxious to claim its
property, does it, sir?" asked Captain Jack Benson.
The speaker was a boy of sixteen, attired in a uniform much after the
pattern commonly worn by yacht captains. The insignia of naval rank were
conspicuously absent.
"Now, that I've had the good luck to sell the 'Pollard' to the Navy,"
responded Jacob Farnum, principal owner of the shipbuilding yard, "I'm not
disposed to grumble if the Government prefers to store its property here
for a while."
Yet the young shipbuilder--he was a man in his early thirties, who had
inherited this shipbuilding business from his father--allowed his eyes to
twinkle in a way that suggested there was something else behind his words.
Jack Benson saw that twinkle, but he did not ask questions. If the
shipbuilder knew more than he was prepared to tell, it was not for his
young captain to ask for information that was not volunteered.
The second boy present, also in uniform, Hal Hastings by name, had not
spoken in five minutes. That was like Hal. _He_ was the engineer of the
submarine torpedo boat, "Pollard." Jack was captain of the same craft, and
could do all the talking.
Jacob Farnum sat back, sideways, at his rolltop desk. On top of the desk
lay stacked a voluminous though neat pile of papers, letters, telegrams
and memoranda that some rival builders of submarine torpedo boats might
have been willing to pay much for the privilege of examining. For, at the
present moment, there was fierce competition in the air between rival
American builders of submarine fighting craft designed for the United
States Navy. Even foreign builders and inventors were clamoring for
recognition. Yet just now the reorganized Pollard Submarine Boat Company
stood at the top of the line. It had made the last sale to the United
States Navy Department.
At this moment, out in the little harbor that was a part of the shipyard,
the "Pollard" rode gently at anchor. She was the first submarine torpedo
boat built at this yard, after the designs of David Pollard, the inventor,
a close personal friend of Jacob Farnum.
Moreover, the second boat, named the "Farnum," had just been launched and
put in commission, ready at an hour's notice to take the sea in search of
floating enemies of the United States.
"The United States will take its boat one of these days, Captain," Mr.
Farnum continued, after lighting a cigar. "By the way, did Dave tell you
the name we are thinking of for the third boat, now on the stocks?"
"Dave" was Mr. Pollard, the inventor of the Pollard Submarine boat.
"No, sir," Captain Jack replied.
"We have thought," resumed Mr. Farnum, quietly, after blowing out a ring
of smoke, "of calling the third boat, now building, the 'Benson.'"
"The--the--what, sir?" stammered Jack, flushing and rising.
"Now, don't get excited, lad," laughed the shipbuilder.
"But--but--naming a boat for the United States Navy after me, sir--"
Captain Jack's face flushed crimson.
"Of course, if you object--" smiled Mr. Farnum, then paused.
"Object? You know I don't, sir. But I am afraid the idea is going to my
head," laughed Jack, his face still flushed. "The very idea of there being
in the United States Navy a fine and capable craft named after me--"
"Oh, if the Navy folks object," laughed Farnum, "then they'll change the
name quickly enough. You understand, lad, the names we give to our boats
last only until the craft are sold. The Navy people can change those names
if they please."
"It will be a handsome compliment to me, Mr. Farnum. More handsome than
deserved, I fear."
"Deserved, well enough," retorted the shipbuilder. "Dave Pollard and I are
well enough satisfied that, if it hadn't been for you youngsters, and the
superb way in which you handled our first boat, Dave and I would still be
sitting on the anxious bench in the ante-rooms of the Navy Department at
Washington."
"Well, I don't deserve to have a boat named after me any more than Hal
does, or Eph Somers."
"Give us time, won't you, Captain?" pleaded Jacob Farnum, his face
straight, but his eyes laughing. "We expect to build at least five boats.
If we didn't, this yard never would have been fitted for the present work,
and you three boys, who've done so handsomely by us, wouldn't each own, as
you now do, ten shares of stock in this company. Never fear; there'll be a
'Hastings' and a 'Somers' added to our fleet one of these days--even though
some of our boats have to be sold to foreign governments."
"If a boat named the 'Hastings' were sold to some foreign government,"
laughed Jack Benson, "Hal, here, wouldn't say much about it. But call a
boat named the 'Somers,' after Eph, and then sell it, say, to the Germans
or the Japanese, and all of Eph's American gorge would come to the
surface. I'll wager he'd scheme to sink any submarine torpedo boat, named
after him, that was sold to go under a foreign flag."
"I hope we'll never have to sell any of our boats to foreign governments,"
replied Jacob Farnum, earnestly. "And we won't either, if the United
States Government will give us half a show."
"That's just the trouble," grumbled Hal Hastings, breaking into the talk,
at last. "Confound it, why don't the people of this country run their
government more than they do? Four-fifths of the inventors who get up
great things that would put the United States on top, and keep us there,
have to go abroad to find a market for their inventions! If I could invent
a cannon to-day that would give all the power on earth to the nation
owning it, would the American Government buy it from me? No, sir! I'd have
to sell the cannon to England, Germany or Japan--or else starve while
Congress was talking of doing something about it in the next session. Mr.
Farnum, you have the finest, and the only real submarine torpedo boat.
Yet, if you want to go on building and selling these craft, you'll have to
dispose of most of them abroad."
"I hope not," responded the shipbuilder, solemnly.
Having said his say, Hal subsided. He was likely not to speak again for an
hour. As a class, engineers, having to listen much to noisy machinery, are
themselves silent.
It was well along in the afternoon, a little past the middle of October.
For our three young friends, Jack, Hal and Eph, things were dull just at
the present moment. They were drawing their salaries from the Pollard
company, yet of late there had been little for them to do.
Yet the three submarine boys knew that big things were in the air. David
Pollard was away, presumably on important business. Jacob Farnum was not
much given to speaking of plans until he had put them through to the
finish. Some big deal was at present "on" with the Government. That much
the submarine boys knew by intuition. They felt, therefore, that, at any
moment, they were likely to be called into action--to be called upon for
big things.
As Jack and Hal sat in the office, silent, while Jacob Farnum turned to
his desk to scan one of the papers lying there, the door opened. A boy
burst in, waving a yellow envelope.
"Operator said to hustle this wire to you," shouted the boy, panting a
bit. "Said it might be big news for Farnum. So I ran all the way."
Jacob Farnum took the yellow envelope, opening it and glancing hastily
through the contents.
"It _is_ pretty good news," assented the shipbuilder, a smile wreathing
his face. "This is for you, messenger."
"This" proved to be a folded dollar bill. The messenger took the money
eagerly, then demanded, more respectfully:
"Any answer, sir?"
"Not at this moment, thank you," replied Mr. Farnum. "That is all; you may
go, boy."
Plainly the boy who had brought the telegram was disappointed over not
getting some inkling of the secret. All Dunhaven, in fact, was wildly agog
over any news that affected the Farnum yard. For, though the torpedo boat
building industry was now known under the Pollard name, after the inventor
of these boats, the yard itself still went under the Farnum name that
young Farnum had inherited from his father.
While Jacob Farnum is reading the despatch carefully, for a better
understanding, let us speak for a moment of Captain Jack Benson and his
youthful comrades and chums.
Readers of the first volume in this series, "The Submarine Boys on Duty,"
remember how Jack Benson and Hal Hastings strayed into the little seaport
town of Dunhaven one hot summer day, and how they learned that it was here
that the then unknown but much-talked-about Pollard submarine was being
built. Both Jack and Hal had been well trained in machine shops; they had
spent much time aboard salt water power craft, and so felt a wild desire
to work at the Farnum yard, and to make a study of submarine craft in
general.
How they succeeded in getting their start in the Farnum yard, every reader
of the preceding volumes knows; how, too, Eph Somers, a native of
Dunhaven, managed to "cheek" his way aboard the craft after she had been
launched, and how he had always since managed to remain there.
Our same older readers will remember the thrilling experiences of this
boyish trio during the early trials of the new submarine torpedo boat,
both above and below the surface. These readers will remember, also, for
instance, the great prank played by the boys on the watch officer of one
of the stateliest battleships of the Navy.
Readers of the second volume, "The Submarine Boys' Trial Trip," will
recall, among other things, the desperate efforts made by George Melville,
the capitalist, aided by the latter's disagreeable son, Don, to acquire
stealthy control of the submarine building company, and their efforts to
oust Jack, Hal and Eph from their much-prized employment. These readers
will remember how Jack and his comrades spoiled the Melville plans, and
how Captain Jack and his friends handled the "Pollard" so splendidly, in
the presence of a board of Navy officers, that the United States
Government was induced to buy that first submarine craft.
After that sale, each of the three boys received, in addition to his
regular pay, a bank account of a thousand dollars and ten shares of stock
in the new company. Moreover, Messrs. Farnum and Pollard had felt wholly
justified in promising these talented, daring, hustling submarine boys an
assured and successful future.
Jacob Farnum at last looked up from the final reading of the telegram in
his hands. Captain Jack Benson's gaze was fixed on his employer's face.
Hal Hastings was looking out of a window, with almost a bored look in his
eyes.
"You young men wanted action," announced Mr. Farnum, quietly. "I think
you'll get it."
"Soon?" questioned Jack, eagerly.
"Immediately, or a minute or two later," laughed the shipbuilder.
"I'm ready," declared Captain Jack, rising.
"It'll take you a little time to hear about it all and digest it, so you
may as well be seated again," declared Farnum.
Hal, too, wandered back to his chair.
"You've been wondering how much longer the Government would leave the
'Pollard' here," went on Mr. Farnum. "I am informed that the gunboat
'Hudson' is on her way here, to take over the 'Pollard.'"
"What are the Navy folks going to do?" demanded Captain Jack, all but
wrathfully. "Do they propose to _tow_ that splendid little craft away?"
"Hardly that, I imagine," replied Farnum. "It's the custom of the United
States Navy, you know, to send a gunboat along with every two or three
submarines. They call the larger craft the 'parent boat.' The parent boat
looks out for any submarine craft that may become disabled."
"The cheek of it," vented Jack, disgustedly. "Why, sir, I'd volunteer to
take the 'Pollard,' unassisted, around the world, if she could carry fuel
enough for such a trip."
"But the Navy hasn't been accustomed to such capable submarine boats as
ours, you know," replied Mr. Farnum. "Hence the parent boat."
"Parent boat?" interjected Hal Hastings, with his quiet smile. "You might
call it the 'Dad' boat, so to speak."
Mr. Farnum laughed, then continued:
"A naval crew will take possession of the 'Pollard,' and the craft will
proceed, under the care of the Dad boat"--with a side glance of amusement
at Hal--"to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis."
"Annapolis--where they train the naval cadets, the midshipmen, into United
States Naval officers? Oh, how I'd like to go there!" breathed Captain
Jack Benson, eagerly.
"As a cadet in the Navy, do you mean?" asked Mr. Farnum.
"Why, that would have been well enough," assented Jack, "before I had such
a chance in your submarine service. No; I mean I'd like to see Annapolis.
I'd like to watch the midshipmen at their training, and see the whole
naval life there."
"It's too bad every fellow can't have his wish gratified as easily,"
continued Jacob Farnum.
"Do you mean we're going to Annapolis, too?" asked Jack Benson, his eyes
glowing. Even Hal Hastings sat up straighter in his chair, watching the
shipbuilder's face closely.
"Yes," nodded Jacob Farnum. "Permission has been granted for me to send
our second boat, the 'Farnum,' along with the 'Pollard'--both under the
care of the--"
"The Dad boat," laughed Hastings.
"Yes; that will give us a chance to have the 'Farnum' studied most closely
by some of the most capable officers in the United States Navy. It ought
to mean, presently, the sale of the 'Farnum' to the Government."
"That's just what it will mean," promised Captain Jack, "if any efforts of
ours can make the Navy men more interested in the boat."
"You three youngsters are likely to be at Annapolis for some time," went
on Mr. Farnum. "In fact--but don't let your heads become too enlarged by
the news, will you?"
Hal, quiet young Hal, neatly hid a yawn behind one hand, while Benson
answered for both:
"We're already wearing the largest-sized caps manufactured, Mr. Farnum.
Don't tempt us too far, please!"
"Oh, you boys are safe from the ordinary perils of vanity, or your heads
would have burst long ago. Well, then, when you arrive at Annapolis, you
three are to act as civilian instructors to the middies. You three are to
teach the midshipmen of the United States Navy the principles on which the
Pollard type of boat is run. There; I've told you the whole news. What do
you think of it?"
Mr. Farnum's cigar having burned low, he tossed it away, then leaned back
as he lighted another weed.
"What do we think, sir?" echoed Captain Jack, eagerly. "Why, we think
we're in sight of the very time of our lives! Annapolis! And to teach the
middies how to run a 'Pollard' submarine."
"How soon are we likely to have to start, sir!" asked Hal Hastings, after
a silence that lasted a few moments.
"Whenever the 'Hudson' shows up along this coast, and the officer in
command of her gives the word. That may be any hour, now."
"Then we'd better find Eph," suggested Captain Jack, "and pass him the
word. Won't Eph Somers dance a jig for delight, though?"
"Yes; we'd better look both boats over at once," replied Mr. Farnum,
picking up his hat. "And we'll leave word for Grant Andrews and some of
his machinists to inspect both craft with us. There may be a few things
that will need to be done."
As they left the office, crossing the yard, Captain Jack Benson and Hal
Hastings felt exactly as though they were walking on air. Even Hal, quiet
as he was, had caught the joy-infection of these orders to proceed to
Annapolis. To be sent to the United States Naval Academy on a tour of
instruction is what officers of the Navy often call "the prize detail."
Farnum and his two youthful companions went, first of all, to the long,
shed-like building in which the third submarine craft to be turned out at
this yard was now being built. From inside came the noisy clang of hammers
against metal. The shipbuilder stepped inside alone, but soon came out,
nodding. The three now continued on their way down to the little harbor.
All of a sudden the three stopped short, almost with a jerk, in the same
second, as though pulled by a string.
At exactly the same instant Jacob Farnum, Captain Jack Benson and Engineer
Hal Hastings put up their hands to rub their eyes.
Their senses had told them truly, however. While the "Pollard" rode
serenely at her moorings, the "Farnum," the second boat to be launched,
was nowhere to be seen!
"What on earth has happened to the other submarine?" gasped the
shipbuilder, as soon as he could somewhat control his voice.
What, indeed?
There was not a sign of her. At least, she had not sunk at her moorings,
for the buoys floated in their respective places, with no manner of tackle
attached to them.
"A submarine boat can't slip its own cables and vanish without human
hands!" gasped the staggered Jack Benson.
"There's something uncanny about this," muttered Hal Hastings.
Jacob Farnum stood rooted to the spot, opening and closing his hands in a
way that testified plainly to the extent of his bewilderment.